Maybe I missed it mentioned, but I think that the term “worker” is not accidental. I believe for something to be a “Worker Placement” game, the worker has to do work.
In some games, like Bus, this is where all the workers get assigned to spots, then you gain the benefits for your workers (i.e. work is performed), and then you cleanup the board for another round of placement.
In other cases, an benefit is offered when the worker is removed; when you collect the worker, you also collect the spoils of their labor.
However, I believe that there are many games where the worker is simply there to prevent someone else from taking the same spot; this, in my mind, is equivalent to action drafting. No different than a hand of cards being passed around, each card representing one of the “placement locations” that you could put a worker, and the player selects one and passes the rest of the cards around.
This is so apt, that I’d mention 18Lilliput uses card drafting in place of Worker Placement, but to the same effect.
But, there are “worker placement” games where you simply place a worker, gain the benefit, and then move along to the next player- who now has one less choice of where to place their worker.
I think these are fairly ho-hum, “worker placement”-wise.
I’m curious how other people view it.
In the spirit of the day, I’ll give a link to my favorite Worker Placement game
very good